Thing #22... Nings

Ning for Teachers was definitely my favorite social network of the three samples, because of course, it's targeting its content to teachers! Just as the website says "it's a place where teachers can share ideas, ask questions, learn from each other, or even vent about the school day!" Although I have finally joined Facebook over this summer, I am still having a hard time with the concept of social websites. Until I saw the concrete Ning examples, I had a hard time conceiving what you could do with them on a professional level. I get it now.

I am very glad that Ning for Teachers does not display the ubiquitous "activity" panel where you learn that "A & B are now friends" or that "C's profile has now changed" (like on Facebook.) Although I have not yet completely bought into the idea of social websites, I have to confess that I enjoyed having a virtual encounter with Clay Burrell via his blog over the course of this Learning 2.0 journey! And I surely enjoyed the Library2Play interaction; so, maybe,unbeknownst to me, I am slowing turning more and more to the Internet to connect with other people. I guess a ning is the new way of doing it at this point.

The first feature that I liked on http://teacherlingo.com/ are the top tabs that really make it easy to move through the different sections of the website. I also liked the ability to search for lesson plans created by expert teachers on specific content. It reminds me a little of the setup in the Teacher Section of Scholastic. The cloud tags on the right hand side of the home page was very informative as to what the latest trends in education might be.

Browsing through the most recent posts, I came over a great entry on "Wait Time" --one of my toughest challenge! I liked reading this quick review of "best practices" in the safety of my home and also found comfort in reading other teachers' constructive reflections: these are people who LOVE what they do, people for whom teaching is not a job and they are truly inspiring!

I've been using forums in the past and find that they really provide great expert information. That's where I got most of my questions as a newbie triathlete answered before participating in the Jeff and Brede's Intergalatic Triathlon. At Ning for Teachers, these type of forums fall under the "Message Board" tab and I could see them as a great venue for exchanging knowledge and expertise between first year teachers and mentors under a certain anonymity.

To me, nings are probably the virtual schools of tomorrow, where telecommuting students and teachers share an open discussion and collaborate online. If I were to set up a ning for school, I would probably build one to share book reviews, as this is essentially how I use my Facebook with friends who do not live in Houston. I did however read that our amazing SWMS librarian is actually planning on creating a ning for that purpose already and I am excited to see how we are going to implement it... :)